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The PATH Act accelerated the due date for filing Form 1099 that includes nonemployee compensation (NEC) from February 28 to January 31 and eliminated the automatic 30-day extension for forms that include NEC. Starting with tax year 2020, taxpayers should use Form 1099-NEC to report nonemployee compensation.

Form 1099-NEC replaces the use of box 7 on Form 1099-MISC from previous years. Other uses of 1099-MISC have not changed and will continue to be used for common payments such as rent and payments to an attorney.

On Aug. 8, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum on deferring payroll tax obligations in light of the ongoing COVID-19 Disaster, which directed the Treasury Department to suspend collection of the employee portion of Social Security taxes from Sept. 1 through the end of 2020.

Over the past few weeks, we have received dozens of calls from clients, who have received tax notices from both the Internal Revenue Service and the State of Ohio.

The pandemic is not stopping Ohio’s observation of its annual sales tax holiday.

The event kicks off on midnight on Aug. 7 and lasts until Aug. 9 at 11:59 p.m.

During the “holiday,” the following items are exempt from sales and use tax:

The Internal Revenue Service recently announced anyone, who already took a required minimum distribution (RMD) in 2020 from certain retirement accounts, now has the opportunity to roll those funds back into a retirement account following the CARES Act RMD waiver for 2020.

This 60-day rollover period for any RMDs already taken this year has been extended to Aug. 31, 2020, in order to give taxpayers time to take advantage of this opportunity.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service recently announced the distribution of economic impact payments will begin within the next three weeks, and will be distributed automatically, with no action required by most people.

However, some seniors and others who typically do not file returns, will need to submit a simple tax return to receive the stimulus payment.

On March 18, the Internal Revenue Service provided clarification to special payment relief for individuals and businesses in response to the COVID-19 Outbreak.

For individual returns, income tax payment deadlines with a due date of April 15, 2020, are automatically extended until July 15, 2020, for up to $1 million of their 2019 tax due.

This payment relief applies to all individual returns, including self-employed individuals, and all entities other than C-Corporations, such as trusts or estates. The IRS will automatically provide this relief to taxpayers. Taxpayers do not need to file any additional forms or call the IRS to qualify for this relief.

Tax Deadline Remains April 15

While taxpayers still have to file their taxes by April 15, 2020, the deadline to pay taxes has been extended by 90 days until July 15, 2020.

During a March 17th press conference regarding the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced taxpayers will have an additional 90-days through July 15, 2020 to pay their taxes, penalty-free and interest-free. 

He said individual taxpayers can defer up to $1 million of tax payments and corporations up to $10 million in tax payments.

Zinner & Co. is proud to introduce our new 2020 tax season interns. We hope this snapshot of them will help you get to know them, as some of our clients will be receiving communications from our interns, as they will work on tax returns this season. 

One of the most common tax-related misconceptions is that filing a tax extension increases your risk of a tax audit. 

This longstanding myth is simply not true, as filing a tax extension can statistically decrease the risk of an audit.

In addition to statistically decreasing the risk of an audit, there is also one other benefit to extending a tax return.